Water-meter.



No. 739,215. PATENTED SEPT. 15, 1903. J. G. PDTTER iz-E.' G. SWANK.

WATER METER.

APPLICATION TILED HAB.. 12. 1903.

NO MODEL.

m Attorney.

UNITED STATES Patented September 15, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN GILBERT POTTER AND EDWARD CHARLES 'swANK, or RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA.

WATER-IVI ETER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 739,215, dated September 15, 1903. Application filed March 12, 1903. Serial No. 147,499. (No model.)

T0 all whom t 77u03/ concern:

Beit known that we, JOHN GILBERT POTTER and EDWARD CHARLES SWANK, citizens of the United States, residing at Riverside, in the county of Riverside and State of California, have invented certain new and useful VImprovements in Tater-Meters; and we do declare the following to be a full, clear, and eX- act description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention relates to improvements in water-Ineters, the `obj ect of our invention being to provide an improved water-meter in which the operating gears and their connections are effectually protected from contact with the water, a further object of our invention being to effect improvements also in the construction of the casing which carries the disk, to facilitate the removal of the disk-inclosing casing from the outer casing, and hence enable the meter to be readily disassembled for the purpose of making repairs, and our invention consists in the peculiar construction and combination of devices hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a Vertical central sectional view of a watermeter embodying our improvements. Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view of the same on a somewhat smaller scale, taken on the plane indicated by the line a a of Fig. l.

In the embodiment of our invention we provide an outer casing 1, provided on one side with a water-inlet 2, adapted to be coupled to a water-pipe and provided on its opposite side with a water-outlet 3, which is also adapted to be coupled to a watenpipe. Inwardly-extending partitions i are on opposite sides of the inlet 2, and a similarly-disposed partition 3 is on one side of theoutlet-opening 3.

`Within the downwardly-converging central chamber formed in the outer casing by the partitions 3 and 1i is disposed a cage 6, which incases the disk 7, that is operated by the iiow of water through the outer casing and which forms the measuring device of the meter. The said disk case or cage comprises the lower section C and the upper section Gb. The

former is provided on its inner side with an annular recess 8, which extends downwardly for a suitable distance from its upper edge,and the upper section 6b forms the top of the said case or cage 6 and is provided with a depending annular flange 9, adapted to iit in the said recess and bear on the shoulder 10 at the lowerside thereof. It willbe Observed that the sides of the section G converge downwardly to adapt the said section to be snugly fitted in the central chamber of the casing l within the partitions 3a and 4, and it will be further observed that the recess 8 of section 6 and the depending iiange 9 of section Gb are also downwardly converged t0 enable said section .G to be snugly nested in the section 6 'and to be readily removed therefrom by raising it from said lower section. It will be also understood that by this construction of the disk case or cage and of the outer casing l the former may be readily placed in and removed from without disturbing the latter and without the necessity of disconnecting or uncoupling the outer casing l from the inlet and Outlet water-pipes. Hence the parts of the outer casing and the disk case or cage are adapted to be readily assembled and disassembled, so that access may be readily attained thereto when it is necessary to cleanse the operating parts of the meter or repair them. r

The lower and upper sections of the disk cage'or case are provided with socket-bearings l1 1l, respectively, and the disk 7 is provided with a centrally-disposed ball trunnion or axis 12, which is adapted to iit in the said sockets to enable the disk to readily operate' in the disk cage or case 6 and to lie therein in an inclined position, as shown. A shaft 13 projects upwardly from the cen tral portion of the spherical trunnion or axis l2. In the bottom of the lower section 6 of the disk case or cage is an opening '1.4, which registers with the socket 11 and permits the escape of sediment from the interior of the disk case or cage, the bottom of the outer casing l being chambered, as at 15, below the said disk case ILO the upper sides of the outer casing and the disk case or cage and is secured to the former by bolts 17. Apacking-disk 18 is interposed between the upper side of the outer casing 1 and the under side of the cover 1G, said packing-disk having a central opening of a diameter similar to that of the chambered portion 19 in the central under side of said cover. This packing and the peculiar construction of the outer casing and cover 16 enable awater-tight joint to be effected between them, and, moreover, the cover 16 may be readily removed from the outer casing by iirst removing the screws 17 to permit access to the operative parts of the meter.

On the cover 1G is detachably secured a frame 20, which carries a clockwork 21 and a plurality of indicating mechanisms 22 of the usual construction, which record the units, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands cubic feet of water which passes through the meter. These registering mechanisms may be indefinitely extended.

A stuffing-box 23 is provided. with an lupwardly-extending stem 24, which projects upwardly through a central opening 25 in the upper portion of the cover 1G, said stuffingbox being shouldered, as at 2G, to bear under the top of the cover, and a packing-disk 27 of suitable material being placed on the said stem and clamped between said shoulder and the coen gaging portion of said cover 16. The upper portion of the stem 2i is screw-threaded and on the same is screwed a gland 28, a packing-disk 29 of cork or other suitable material being inserted between the upper end of the said stem and the said gland.

A vertically-disposed operating-shaft 30 extends through the stufling-box and has its bearing therein and is provided at its lower end with a pinion or head 3l, which is engaged by the extended shaft 13 of the disk 12 clockwork 21.

and rotated thereby, so that rotary motion is imparted to said shaft 30. At the upper end of said shaft is a spur-gear 32, which sets in motion the train of gears constituting the It is thought unnecessary to specifically describe this clockwork, as it will be readily understood from an inspection of the drawings, audits function is to communimaalt cate motion to a shaft 33, which sets in operation the intergear registering mechanisms 22.

1t will be understood from the foregoing description and by reference to the drawings that a water-tight connection is effected between the stuffing-box and the chambered portion 19 of the cover 16, so that the clockwork is entirely excluded from contact with the water. Y

An upper casing 34 is provided which incloses the clockwork, the registering mechanisms, and covers the cover 16, and. is detachably secured to the latter by bolts 35. The upper portion of the cover 34k is open, is provided with a glass closure 3G above the registering mechanism and which permits inspection of the latter, and the said cover is further provided with a hinged lid 37 to cover and uncover said glass closure.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings,- the construction and operation of the invenM tion will be readily understood without requiring a more extended explanation.

Various changes in the form, proportion, and the minor details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the principle or sacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

In a meter of the class described, the combination of an outer casing having a chambered portion with downwardly-converging side walls, yan inner casing having similarlyshaped side walls and detachably fitted in said chambered portion, a cover common to the inner and outer casing and detachable therefrom, and a registering mechanism supported solely by said cover, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN GILBERT POTTER. EDWARD CHARLES SWANK.

Vitnesses D. E. MYERs, Il. C. HIBBARD. 

